Mendoza, Argentina

We arrived at Mendoza feeling tired like usual after a night on the bus. The only flier we were handed was for a homestay so not convinced as they haven´t been our best experiences in the past. On a reccomendation and due to the name we headed to hostel Loas which was amazing but the price reflected it. In the end we stayed at the homestay and our host was really nice and very enthusiastic if not a little crazy. She liked to draw all over our map every morning to tell us again all the places we should visit as it turned out some of these places were a figment of her imagaination or not the spectacular tourist attraction she had lead us to believe. However it did encourage us to explore parts of Mendoza many tourists probally avoid!

On our first afternoon in Mendoza we found that due to it being sunday again everything was closed. So we heaed for the pub and had some drinks followed by some more with dinner.

On our first full day we decided to visit the aquarium (on reccomendation). You couldn´t really compare it to any back home but it did have a cool alien type fish and it was amusing watching the turtles using the aligators as climbing frames. We then discovered the market and cheap pizza which we spent every lunch time revisiting. The afternoon was spent wisely on a wine tour. One bodega still using the traditonal wooden casks and one smaller family one. We got interesting tours but more importantly tasted some good Malbecs and the white wine was suprisingly good. We had bread with olive oil for afters at the olive oil factory which again was pretty good. On our return we had to pick up our washing from the scary laundrette lady who we had wholly frustrated in the morning with our terrible spanish that she insisted we get a dictionary. It turned out that she seemed to like us as the next day when we walked past she waved at us. Maybe she was just thankful we were not making a return trip. In the evening Aaron managed to get the best steak sandwich ever he says for once the lonely planet was right and we followed that with yes more cheap wine.

Due to the fact the sun was shining we headed to the park the next day. We did sit there in jumpers and scarfs but it was pleasant. We had a lazy day of reading, cards and wine and then visited the one of many vegetarian resturants for tea. Our final day in Mendoza we tried to visit the mirrador and what was supposed to be a tranquil park what it turned out to be was a building with no view point and banging music blurting out at 9.30 in the morning and a park surrounded by busy traffic. So we swiftly moved onto a contempary art museum. Turned out the best day as museums are all free on wednesdays. There was some really good photography and these cool pictures where the figures were faded into the background. We visited another museum in the afternoon which was supposed to be about the earthquake. It showed you some of the remains of the old town under the floor but the rest of it was just random history stuff all in spanish of course.

Mendoza and Argentina as a whole have some strange trends all the children look like there heading off on holiday with wheeled cases that they all take to school. How much stuff does a five year old need. Also they all walk around in Science coats over their uniforms for some strange reason all the chemists blend in well.

Another night bus and we move onto Cordaba a university town that is suposed to be all the cultural stuff.